Star Bulk Carriers Corp. (NASDAQ:SBLK) Plans Quarterly Dividend of $0.09

Star Bulk Carriers Corp. (NASDAQ:SBLK) declared a quarterly dividend on Tuesday, February 18th, RTT News reports. Shareholders of record on Tuesday, March 4th will be paid a dividend of 0.09 per share by the shipping company on Tuesday, March 18th. This represents a $0.36 annualized dividend and a yield of 2.30%. The ex-dividend date is Tuesday, March 4th.

Star Bulk Carriers has increased its dividend by an average of 3.6% annually over the last three years. Star Bulk Carriers has a payout ratio of 10.7% indicating that its dividend is sufficiently covered by earnings. Analysts expect Star Bulk Carriers to earn $2.64 per share next year, which means the company should continue to be able to cover its $0.36 annual dividend with an expected future payout ratio of 13.6%.

Star Bulk Carriers Trading Up 0.7 %

Shares of SBLK opened at $15.63 on Friday. The company has a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.42, a quick ratio of 1.50 and a current ratio of 1.65. Star Bulk Carriers has a 52-week low of $14.30 and a 52-week high of $27.47. The firm has a market cap of $1.31 billion, a price-to-earnings ratio of 5.45 and a beta of 0.95. The business’s fifty day moving average is $15.25 and its 200-day moving average is $18.22.

Star Bulk Carriers (NASDAQ:SBLK) last released its earnings results on Tuesday, February 18th. The shipping company reported $0.34 earnings per share (EPS) for the quarter, missing analysts’ consensus estimates of $0.42 by ($0.08). The business had revenue of $308.92 million during the quarter, compared to the consensus estimate of $230.91 million. Star Bulk Carriers had a net margin of 24.08% and a return on equity of 12.48%. Equities analysts anticipate that Star Bulk Carriers will post 1.74 EPS for the current fiscal year.

Analyst Ratings Changes

A number of research firms recently issued reports on SBLK. Jefferies Financial Group lowered their price objective on shares of Star Bulk Carriers from $22.00 to $21.00 and set a “buy” rating for the company in a research report on Wednesday, February 19th. DNB Markets raised shares of Star Bulk Carriers from a “sell” rating to a “hold” rating and increased their price objective for the company from $19.30 to $20.20 in a research note on Thursday, November 21st. Finally, StockNews.com cut Star Bulk Carriers from a “buy” rating to a “hold” rating in a research note on Thursday, January 23rd. Three investment analysts have rated the stock with a hold rating and two have given a buy rating to the company’s stock. According to MarketBeat, the stock has a consensus rating of “Hold” and an average price target of $22.05.

About Star Bulk Carriers

Star Bulk Carriers Corp., a shipping company, engages in the ocean transportation of dry bulk cargoes worldwide. Its vessels transport a range of bulk commodities, including iron ores, minerals and grains, bauxite, fertilizers, and steel products. As of December 31, 2023, the company owned a fleet of 116 dry bulk vessels with combined carrying capacity of 13.1 million deadweight tonnage (dwt) consisting of Newcastlemax, Capesize, Post Panamax, Kamsarmax, Panamax, Ultramax, and Supramax vessels with carrying capacities between 53,489 dwt and 209,537 dwt.